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7 week old - crying for bottle then crying when given bottle??

DD is 6 weeks 5 days old. She is having Aptimal - and normally feeds every 3 - 4 hours. Occasionally she will look for a bottle from 2 hours - but we try to distact her by holding her on the shoulder or rocking her to sleep etc until we get her to the 3 hours. As long as she is not bawling and inconsoleable.

We have had a few instances where she has appeared starving - the hungry cry but then will only take 50mls (not even 2 oz). Then she will absolutely bawl if the bottle is put in her mouth. It doesn't seem to be wind .. unless it is gas in the intestine. We have her taking Infacol.

50 mls is more or less a snack for her - and it won't last 3 hours. This happens most often at the 8pm or 9pm feed. Today was particularly bad where she only took 65 mls at the 11am feed, it happened again at the 5pm feed although she took 95 mls. It just happened again at the 8pm feed @ 55 mls

Not really sure what is going on with her. Feeds last night were very good. She had 100 mls at 12.30 am, 95mls at 4.15 am, 100 mls at 7.30am, 65 mls at 11am, 80 mls at 2pm, 80 mls at 5pm, 55 mls at 8pm.

Really not sure what could cause her to wail so much when given the bottle after taking so little. Could it be that she has just simply had enough of it. If so, then how come she does not last the 3 hours. These may seem like stupid questions but this is our first child ...

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "wishdust" (Sep 17th 2010, 8:59pm)

It is definitely worth seeing your GP and asking for a referral to a paediatrician (as many GPs simply do not have a specialised knowledge of infants). One of my DDs was like this. Our GP prescribed gaviscon and ranitidine for reflux which didn't help. The paediatrician diagnosed cows milk/soya/lactose intolerance and put her on a special hypo-allergenic formula which has made a massive difference.

I went to a GP yesterday with her and he reckoned that it was mild colic and as long as she is gaining weight that she is okay. Said that her gut was probably in spasm as she is taking bigger feeds the last few days ..
The last 24 hours have been a lot better. I think Flic has hit the nail on the head and that she is going through a growth spurt. She uis taking bigger amounts and going for longer - she is actually making it beyond three hours - went for 5 hours for the first time last night.

I have my 6 week check up at the hospital tomorrow so I will ask them if I can have a paeditrition look at her

Thank god for reading this I feel like I'm not alone. My little girl has always been challenging to feed but it's going downhill and no-one will listen to me. She struggles to take a bottle; screams, puts her tongue in the way of the teat, hits me, digs her nails in my arm and then drags them out; goes completely rigid, almost throws herself out of my arms, do I need to go on? After posting last time I went to the doctors and he examined her and ended up saying she was just being a madam. Feeds went to taking an hour so I spoke to my HV and she said she's putting on weight don't worry just let her take her time.

She is six months on Thursday so we have started to try getting her on solids, everything is going in her mouth and she's obsessed when she see you eating anything and won't take her eyes off you. If she can spit out whatever is in her mouth she will. If it's something sticky ie pureed carrot she will gag until she makes herself sick. The only time she feeds well is when she's asleep. So far today she's had 5.5oz, 6oz and then 4oz. The last 4oz took over an hour!

I really don't know what to do now as I know if I speak to the health visitor again she will jsut tell me to stop worrying as she's putting on weight normally.

I feel so much better hearng someone else is having similar problems but wherever I look the issue of intolerance keeps coming up and I'm wondering if feeding is so uncomfortable for her it's putting her off even trying proper food.

Pushoz - my little lady used to be a madam with her bottles, it used to take her an hour to drink a 6oz bottle. I know she prefered breast but i used to switch breast and bottle between her and her brother, but i used to hate the hour long feel, anyway to cut a long story short i went through 4 different types of bottles to see if that made a difference, nothing did, I went to boots one day and saw 4 bottles on offer for a ridiculously cheap price, brought them and hey presto she demolished her milk within 15 minutes from those bottle. Of course you little one may well have an intolerance of some sort but have you tried changing the bottle or the flow of the teat, it may be worth a try?

Pushoz, have you thought about BLW? The reason I ask is that another member was having problems with weaning and her LO wasn't happy having food in her mouth until she changed to BLW and her daughter was well away feeding herself and it seemed that her daughter just wanted to eat and feed herself.

Hi Pushoz,
I am the original poster on this thread and I completely feel your pain .. but I don't think that what you are experiencing is uncommon.
My little one willbe 6 months on Feb 1st, she has never drunk more than a 5 oz bottle. She has 5 bottles a day and most of them are like 120 mls (4 oz). She was diagnosed with reflux, but that was a load of crap ... the issue was that baby was exhausted because she was not napping enough, so when the afternoon came she was absolutely hysterical when it came to the 3 o' clock bottle.
We put her on Gina Ford's routine (bottle times only) and it is much improved.

She was 12 and a half pounds weight at her last weigh in with the health visitor before Christmas (5 months). The health visitor said she was in the 2nd percentile which isn't good in her theory book. Baby looks fine and baby is thriving!! Whon cares about her growth charts. Baby will eat what she wants and as long as she is happy, sleeping through the night, having wet and dirthy nappies then I am not going to upset her routine for some text book growth chart.

Anyways .. rant over...
Pushoz ... your little one sounds fine. T was a bit like that when she started solids .. give her some time. We started T on solids at 17 weeks and she is still touch and go with them. Some days she is grand and will take 3 meals and others (like today), she will take only 2. She had a hissy fit when she was supposed to take her yummy dinner and now she is asleep when she should be having her pureed apple and pear!
I don't care though because she is putting on weight and is happy. That is what matters ..

Try not to worry hun ,, if your little one is not drinking back 8 oz bottles it does not mean there is anything wrong.
It sounds like you are doing a great job altogether .. your little one is just taking her time testing the solids like mine .. she will eventually take more and more each day.
Wish Dust

Although not the same, I thought I would post how things were with us too.
From birth, A was a guzzler and then went a bit fussy when she started to teeth for a bit.
Then she wanted more than normal in the way of milk and we started her on solids gradually from just under 5 months old.
It was the source of worry for us too and the HV wasn't too worried because she is still a healthy weight. At almost 11 months when they saw her, she was taking little ie about 2-4 ounces from her 3 bottles. I was advised to cut the lunchtime one and was told she would take her bedtime one again with gusto. Guess what?...... She wouldn't have it and so dropped all except a morning bottle from which she took only afew ounces. Then from there, she has quickly dropped the amount of milk she was having until at 11 and a half months, she refused point blank to drink milk from a bottle or cup.
I now have to get it into her through other dairy and in ready brek.
She is due her imms tomorrow so I am interested to see what they say about that. I have another wee mental list of things to ask whilst I am there too,x

2nd ICSI March 2009
4 Top Grade 1 Frosties in Waiting for next time! My Diary

Thank god for reading this I feel like I'm not alone. My little girl has always been challenging to feed but it's going downhill and no-one will listen to me. She struggles to take a bottle; screams, puts her tongue in the way of the teat, hits me, digs her nails in my arm and then drags them out; goes completely rigid, almost throws herself out of my arms, do I need to go on? After posting last time I went to the doctors and he examined her and ended up saying she was just being a madam. Feeds went to taking an hour so I spoke to my HV and she said she's putting on weight don't worry just let her take her time.

I am the original poster on this thread and I completely feel your pain .. but I don't think that what you are experiencing is uncommon.
My little one willbe 6 months on Feb 1st, she has never drunk more than a 5 oz bottle. She has 5 bottles a day and most of them are like 120 mls (4 oz). She was diagnosed with reflux, but that was a load of crap ... the issue was that baby was exhausted because she was not napping enough, so when the afternoon came she was absolutely hysterical when it came to the 3 o' clock bottle.

This is totally my Issie too. At 9 months she still only takes 4-5oz bottles, with the occasional 6oz, and feeding has always been an uphill struggle. I regularly take her to a fabulous private paediatrician just to put my mind a rest. He reckons that she just doesn't like milk (she is intolerant so her formula doesn't taste great and she associates her bottle with the tummy ache she used to get) and the sooner I get her onto steak & chips the better since then the milk becomes so much less important. Weaning started off really slowly, and I used to dispair about ever getting her to eat enough to make up for the lack of milk, but if you could only see her now shovelling Birds Eye Potato Waffles into her month....! I was really keen on BLW, as suggested by Flic, but it takes quite a while to get established and when Issie was not taking much milk I just wanted to shovel a many calories as I could into her.

I reckon Issie takes no more than 12ozs of milk per day but it no longer concerns me. She will always be a tiny - she's on the 9th centile - but is gaining weight steadily and the paediatrician assures me she is perfectly healthy.